1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a knee airbag device for a vehicle, which includes a knee airbag that is inflated and deployed to restrain the knees of an occupant when a frontal collision occurs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various knee airbag devices for a vehicle have been proposed to protect the knees of an occupant. For example, each of International Patent Publication WO2002/004262, and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-104317 describes a knee airbag device that includes an airbag module disposed inside a column cover for a steering column.
However, in the knee airbag device described in each of the above publications, because a knee airbag, which is inflated and deployed toward an area below the lower surface of the column cover, has a certain thickness, improvement needs to be made as described below.
In general, when an occupant is small, the knees of the occupant are positioned close to an instrument panel. Therefore, a gap between the knees and the instrument panel is narrow, and thus, it is difficult to deploy the knee airbag. Also, when the knees are positioned close to the instrument panel, the knee airbag may enter an area between the knees, and may widen the distance between the knees.
Accordingly, the knee airbag device described in each of the above publications needs to be improved.